


Nightmares

by glackedandmullered



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Comfort, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-12
Updated: 2014-01-16
Packaged: 2018-01-04 11:12:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1080338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glackedandmullered/pseuds/glackedandmullered
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael Jones has suffered through nightmares all his life. Now he has a loving relationship and 5 guys who will learn his secret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The Lads had seen Michael’s nightmares.

Ray saw it first, months before RoosterTeeth back in New York. They had gone back to his apartment after a ‘no homo’ bro date and it had gotten too late for Michael to get the train back to Jersey. He had suggested he find a hotel but Ray, being the good guy, insisted that his couch was free and better that anywhere Michael would find on this short notice.

He woke up at 3am to screaming.

Wielding the closest thing to hand, a deodorant can if you must know, he burst into the living room to find not an axe murderer or Zombie outbreak, just Michael thrashing about on the couch screaming bloody murder with the odd interruption of NO or STOP. Ray practically threw the can away to the side paying no mind to the crack that followed before kneeling by Michaels head, shaking his shoulders roughly. Releasing a string of Michael wake up it’s okay over and over until brown eyes snapped open and Michael shoved Ray away, bowing his head and running a hand through his messy curls.

Ray had gotten up then, going to his kitchen and coming back with a glass of ice cold water and the next ten minutes were spent with a heavily breathing Michael reassuring his worried friend that it was fine, just a bad dream and he’d finish the water and go back to sleep. That Ray should do the same. When Ray protested he put his head down, feigning sleep before he heard Ray slump back to bed.

Michael didn’t sleep again that night and, in the morning when Ray woke up to the smell of coffee and eggs, he said nothing else about that night.

Gavin saw one on a late podcast night at the office.

Geoff headed home with Jack right after recording some let’s play material and Michael agreed to be Gavin’s ride since he had work to finish up anyway and it’d be best to just get it done.

Once recording had finished Gavin made his way back to the Achievement Hunter office and found his lift dozing with his head resting on his arms on the desk, snoring softly and a half edited video on the screen in front of him.

Smiling, Gavin leaned over to save the file and went about his business gathering bits and pieces to take back with him. He was just turning off the computers when he heard the first whimper. Quiet but definitely there Gavin turned to look at his sleeping friend who was no longer so peaceful. He was twitching his head back and forth, tiny cries emitting from his lips and Gavin immediately put his hand to the warm shaking shoulder.

“Michael, Michael you’re dreaming, wake up.”

Which Michael did, with a start and a shout. He seemed to be trying to collect himself, taking slow careful breaths before he realised Gavin was behind him and jumped out of his seat.

“You all good to go boi?” His smile was forced and strained, Gavin could see that.

“You okay Michael?” He asked cautiously.

“Yeah of course, ready to get home though.” The conversation was over before it began and nothing more was said.

Those weren’t the only times the nightmares happened for Michael though. He didn’t know when they had started but he knew that he couldn’t remember a time when he wasn’t dealing with them. The short fuse of his that got him noticed and landed him his job was a result of year of no sleep or near enough. Night after night of darkness consuming him and keeping him from rest. He passed it off pretty well and tried not to sleep near people too often but that wasn’t always possible. Ray and Gavin seemed to forget the incidents pretty quickly and for that Michael was grateful.

Unfortunately it became more difficult when, after months of darting around the subject, the 6 achievement hunters made their relationship official. At first it was pulling out of nights together or choosing the end of the bed to sleep so he could slip out unnoticed. But then they moved in together. From that point on he had to make excuses for going to bed after the others when really he would lie on the couch and wait for all the noises upstairs to stop before he could allow himself to attempt sleep. The master bedroom was far enough away that he could get away with the off shout and the guys would be none the wiser. Then he could slip into the bed close to the morning or feign an early start or, on the rare occasion that he was caught on the couch, laugh about falling asleep working.

It was going well. He was tired, inexplicably so both physically and mentally but it was okay. The nightmares lessened too, having such a loving relationship was doing wonders for his general state of mind and he found himself getting an extra hour or two asleep each night and it gave him a bit of hope.

So maybe one day he let his guard down, and then it went to hell.

It was after the extra life stream. Michael had returned home a few hours before with Ray and Gavin, they played some video games with a laptop to the side with Jacks continuing work on the stream playing through the speakers. Ryan and Geoff showed up not long after with beers and laughing and Geoff saying it’s never too early for a drink.

Jack appeared around 9am obviously exhausted and Michael gave up his seat to Ryan before dragging Jack to the bedroom, allowing him to place a few kisses on his other boyfriends first, and pushing him down onto the bed and snuggling up to his warmth, head resting on Jacks chest. Jacks slow breaths as he fell into sleep lulled Michael’s senses and before he could stop it he too was drifting off.

He didn’t feel the others snuggle down not long after and didn’t notice Gavin’s long arm pulling him to his chest or the kiss to his forehead. He didn’t notice any of this because the nightmare had already begun.

Dark, all around him, heavy and thick, deep raspy breathing near his ear. When the first splatter of, what he knew by now to be blood, hit him he knew that this was a bad one, worse than he’d had in a long time. And he was powerless to stop it.

Gavin, being the closest was the first to notice. Whimpers and cries in the dim light. He turned over in his sleep, seeking out the thing that was moving roughly beside him. The thing he quickly realised was one of his boys. He remembered a few months back and whispered hopefully in the dark Michael, that you? No reply, only more cries and by now his fighting had become stronger and Gavin was forced to risk waking up the other, but he hoped he would because he didn’t know what to do.

“MICHAEL, WAKE UP MICHAEL” The shouting however seemed only to make it worse as the cries grew to screams and there was no chance of the other men in the bed staying asleep.

Geoff reached over in his sleep state, not knowing quite what was happening, and was rewarded with a fist to his face. That officially woke him up and suddenly they were all huddling near Michael who was all out crying and screeching like he was being brutally murdered and his limbs were going from ramrod straight to flailing wildly.

Ray moved off the side as did Ryan so there was more room for Geoff and Jack, who was under the writhing body and didn’t know what else to do other than tuck his arms around it, to try and comfort. Gavin just rammed himself against the end of the bed, too afraid to do anything.

“Michael, wake up, you’re okay Michael wake up.” Geoff tried to be as gentle as possible while also trying to get as close to the thrashing man as he could. Once Jack had managed to restrain Michaels arms Geoff could finally get close enough to speak into his ear.

“Michael, you’re safe, you’re with us, come back to us baby boy.” The slow soothing voice and gentle yet firm grip of Jack around him combined pulled Michael from the throws of his nightmare and his eyes snapped open, giving a cry and pulling away to the side roughly and, before anyone could do anything, he was vomiting over the side of the bed.

Geoff quickly pulled him back into his arms whispering It’s okay, you’re alright to him as he tried in vain to steady his breathing. He was near hyperventilating when a glass of water appeared at the side of his face and he took a couple of sips, nearly choking as the force of his breathing was still overcoming him. It took time but eventually his breathing evened out and he slumped, exhausted into whoever was holding him now. He closed his eyes and let a tear slip down his cheeks.

“So you have nightmares.” Geoff said some time later, when they were all sitting on the bed, Michael against the headboard with Gavin’s hand in his and the others watching him carefully. The puke had been mostly cleaned up, the bed reorganised and now they were waiting for explanation.

“Most of my life, yeah.” He replied, hands shaking and eyes cast off to the side avoiding everyone’s gaze.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Gavin murmured.

“I didn’t want to bother you, as you saw they get pretty loud, I didn’t want to keep you up”

“So the late nights…early mornings and the couch…?” Jack asked, feeling stupid for not realising.

“You sleep there every night don’t you?” Michael just nodded; head bowing again and one hand coming up to brush a tear away when another hand stopped him. Jack lifted Michaels chin with his fingers making him look him in the eye.

“You should have told us. No,” he shook his head when Michael was about to protest, “You really should. We love you and we want to know when one of our own is hurting. If you’d told us we could have helped, I don’t know how but we could.”

“And now we will.” Ray whispered and they all nodded in agreement.

“You don’t have to do this alone, Michael.” It didn’t matter who said it, the words came from them all and Michael felt it strong within him. The Love.

For the first time in a long while he felt safe and, when it came to resting his head down and cuddling with his boys into sleep, he wasn’t afraid.


	2. Healing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone on tumblr asked for a small continuation so I thought I might as well pop it onto here too.

In the months that passed after that day Michael learnt what it was like to sleep with no fear, no evil invading his dreams. After the night they spent, curled up against one another and all arms arched towards Michael in the centre of the bed, he slept soundly. 

He set up a sleep schedule, they gave up late nights at bars and reworked their recording process so they could get back in time to settle down together. They found it helped a lot, it regulated Michaels brain and they assured him that it wasn’t any trouble, they were perfectly content to do it if it meant they could see their boyfriend become a happier, more confident and less exhausted version of himself. It worked.

For the most part anyway. 

There were bumps in the road, he didn’t expect any different and neither did his boyfriends. They knew that, after years of suffering at the hand of his own mind, it was never going to be a simple case of ‘there it’s over, back to normal.’ It was trials and heartache, late nights and early mornings and they dealt with it the only way they could, they held him and kissed him and promised they were there. 

The worst of them occurred when someone was missing. When he could sense, even in sleep that there weren’t as many bodies tangled in the sheets. When Gavin was in England or a portion of them headed off to a Convention; that was when the darkness would once again infect his subconscious as he lay in the bed unaware of the threat. That’s when death and blood would once again plague his mind, terrifying images supplied by his brain. Gavin, bloodied and broken, being dragged away from his by ghostly tendrils, twisting and dancing in the dark. Running miles and miles screaming Rays name while all he could hear was _He’s not coming back._ Blood splattered on bearded skin and red eyes following him as he would stumble and fall and crack his head on the solid floor that would dissolve under his feet and send him plummeting into absolute nothingness. 

He would jerk awake, strong arms wrapped around him and voices whispering reassurances to him until he could calm himself. When Jack and Ray went to Australia Michael didn’t sleep for a week and he cried himself into exhaustion when they told him they wouldn’t go again, they assured him it was their choice but he still felt that pain in his chest from ruining things again. 

They convinced him to try medications, he had tried them before of course but they had never been effective. Jack accompanied him to the doctor and he was put on something strong, something that would put him to sleep and keep him that way, deep in slumber until morning came. 

In a sense it worked. They couldn’t say the stuff didn’t, it definitely kept him asleep. But it paralyzed him, it didn’t stop the nightmares, just made them ten times worse. The drug kept his body weak and unable to express his internal struggles to the other men in the bed. It let the nightmares take a hold on Michaels mind and drag him down and down while he was completely helpless to stop it, then, once he was down there he screamed and screamed while white hot pain shot through his head and everything screamed at him that no one was coming to save him. 

He woke up worse than he had the day they had first found out about his terrors. He tumbled from the bed and puked until there was nothing left in him and then he puked some more, he shook and shied away from everyone screaming hoarse cries into his arms as he pressed himself against the wall with almost bruising force. 

It took well over two hours to calm him down enough to get a word out of him and days until he was back to his old self and they took his healing back into their own hands. They flushed the pills down the toilet and Michael had never been more grateful for them in his life. 

Eventually, with time and love and the odd visit to a shrink in town, Michael was able to sleep through the nights for a month straight. They celebrated with a night out and a few rounds of beer – and lots of coke for Ray – and even with the alcohol in his system he slept soundly and comfortably. 

It was taking time to heal, it was never going to be an easy road, but with his boyfriends around him he was confident that it was going to be okay.


End file.
